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Sunday, December 30, 2012

The Sunday Whirl #89

click the image to read other wordles, and come play along!

flameagainstbroodpoint icekneadpopcreekstrewndelivertangentstars

I remember the way it seemed as if the stars were strewn along the ice of the creek, each one a shimmering flame-point of light against its glassy surface. I had been brooding over the loss of my job, and my husband suggested we walk out into the evening's bone-chill to clear our minds with a brisk, frosty, foray into the forest that bordered our property, as he knew the gentle beauty of the creek would soothe my worries, as it always did. It had been that kind of day. Who goes to work in the morning thinking they're going to come home unemployed? Not me, that's for sure. I had worked at the same company for 13 years, and had no reason to think that my job was in any kind of jeopardy, but here I was, facing the truth of it - I had become obsolete. So much so, that I didn't even know it until they told me this morning. Stupid stupid stupid! I had let myself grow complacent, and didn't see the signs I was slowly beginning to recognize as I replayed the past few weeks in my head, and understanding - in retrospect - many of the weird tangents that my supervisor's conversations had gone on, lately.
"What would you do if you didn't do this?" she had asked me. "I always wanted to be a pop star," she had said, "but don't we all? Which of your discarded dreams will you pursue in your retirement, do you think?"
I should have known right then, I admonished myself, how could I not have seenit? How could I be so blind? I felt the warmth of my husband's hands through my layers as he kneaded the tension out of my shoulders and neck, down there by my sacred creek, and decided I had had enough of feeling victimized for one day. "Honey, let's just get a pizza delivered and watch a movie or something, okay? I don't much feel like making dinner tonight," I said, out into the cold darkness before me.
"Sure, babe," he replied cheerfully, "you oughta get fired more often, if it means we get to do pizza and movies!" I pulled myself from his embrace, turned around to face him, and punched him square in the solar plexus - not hard enough to knock the wind out of him, just enough to let him know he wasn't as funny as he thought he was. "Oof!" he huffed, and chuckled at me, "Okay, okay, I'm teasing! Don't hurt me," he begged, while putting his hands up to signal his surrender. I tried to body-slam him, but it turned into more of a bear hug, as he wrestled with me, and we both fell to the ground, giggling like children, and rolled over each other in the snow, down the slight embankment, and into the frozen creek, where we cracked through the ice and both shrieked like banshees as the icy water hit us. Laughing and freezing, we pulled each other out and up the bank, yelling wildly as we ran stumbling back towards the house, where all the lights in the windows made me swell with such bittersweet joy, that the light fractured into a thousand tiny rainbows at the corners of my tear-streaked eyes. I realized that I didn't care what was happening anywhere else in the world, right now - I was happy, safe, and loved. I was Home, and everything was going to be okay...

Your piece reminded me of "life," which is like the surprise of the loss of your job. Life often sneaks up on us...we get things they way we want, and everything changes in a moment. We really hate changes, but life is always changing. If only we could look at everything and realize it is a blessing.... perhaps you will be a popstar after all. I like your write!

thanks, Annell - it is a work of fiction. this isn't my life at all, but one conjured from the wordle words - being a pop star is pretty far from what I want for my life! thanks for visiting, and for your comment!

hey Jules, as always, your contributions were great! I've left a lot of jobs myself, and maybe that's why this piece rings true to so many people, even though I made the whole thing up. I'm not married, I've never worked anywhere for more than a few years let alone 13, and I don't have a house bordering a forest! and I've never tumbled down a embankment into an icy river with a man I was wrestling with, for that matter! I'm really glad this little piece came off so well! thanks for reading ~

Hey Mama, thanks for stopping by my blog! This story is so real... I remember being laid off and not "taking the hints" as they passed by me. Your line, "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" caught me, as it must anyone who's been "rendered obsolete." The pizza comment, the husband's loving support, rolling into and breaking the ice, becoming children for a moment... Home indeed. Loved this. Amyhttp://sharplittlepencil.com/2013/01/05/peace-and-war-and-pieces-of-human-beings-on-the-ground/

thanks Amy - it means a lot, coming from you, as I have so much respect for your work. it was just one of those moments in which everything flowed right, and the scene came together almost on it's own. love when that happens! thanks for visiting, and for your kind words ~

"And so it is that we, as (people), do not exist until we do; and then it is that we play with our world of existent things, and order and disorder them, and so it shall be that Non-existence shall take us back from Existence, and that nameless Spirituality shall return to Void, like a tired child home from a very wild circus."